The Season When Golf and Football Collide

September 19, 2013

Karen Crouse

ON GOLF

ATLANTA — Jason Dufner walked off East Lake Golf Club’s ninth green on Thursday after making an eight-foot birdie putt with his shoulders slouched, his cap pulled over his eyes, his gaze directed downward. Dufner, the reigning P.G.A. champion, is known for his impassivity, but his posture straightened and his lips nearly curved into a smile when a fan in the crowd shouted, “War Eagle!”

Dufner, 36, has two great loves: his wife, Amanda; and Auburn football. For Dufner and other avid college sports fans, weekends in the fall are a comfort-food potluck of prognosticating, tailgating, spectating, and second-guessing or crowing.

If he were not at this week’s season-ending Tour Championship, Dufner, who was last in the field after an opening four-over 74, would be gearing up for Auburn’s game Saturday at L.S.U. The start of autumn is the time sports fans give thanks for their bountiful viewing choices. In addition to the college football season getting in gear, the N.F.L. is back in action, and the baseball season is winding down while wild-card races are tightening up. And then there are the golf playoffs, with the best players in the world spending a month jockeying for a $10 million bonus.

The FedEx Cup playoffs have provided great theater, with Adam Scott winning the Barclays while on the range preparing for a possible playoff; Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing in the same group at the Deutsche Bank Championship; and Jim Furyk tying the tour scoring record with a 59 in the second round of the BMW Championship. Henrik Stenson, one of five players in the field who would win the bonus with a victory here, produced additional drama with four consecutive birdies Thursday on his way to a pace-setting six-under 64.

It has been a great diversion from raking leaves for people already ardent about golf. But are the playoffs delivering a new audience to the game? Dufner doubts it.

The P.G.A. Championship winner, Jason Dufner, with the Wanamaker Trophy, is an Auburn football fan.

Albert Cesare / Opelika-Auburn News, via Associated Press

“Golf fans are always going to watch golf no matter if football’s going on or not,” he said. “But you’re going to have a tough time pulling guys away from watching their favorite universities, their favorite N.F.L. teams, during this time of year. I don’t think us doing the playoffs really has that much of an impact on it.”

Aided by a late charge from Woods, who finished one stroke behind Scott, the final-round coverage of the Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup, earned a 3.7 overnight rating on CBS, up from 2.7 last year. Nielsen figures showed the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the next event, had 3.2 million viewers on NBC, down 34 percent from 2012, when the final round was the most-viewed FedEx Cup telecast since 2007.

Golf Channel’s coverage of Furyk’s sub-60 round drew an audience of just under 1.1 million.

“The guys that are into football aren’t going to pay too much attention to the playoffs, especially at the beginning of the year,” Dufner said. “Guys are excited about their teams or their fantasy teams or universities that they went to or root for. I even find myself in the same predicament at times, wishing that I could attend games or watch games.”

Auburn’s game at L.S.U. is at night, which means Dufner will not have to ask for scoring updates the way players with other allegiances have the past two Saturdays.

“I’m glad that I’m playing at East Lake and definitely putting my best foot forward,” Dufner said, “but another part of me was wishing that maybe I was at home enjoying a couple of beers and watching some football.”

Adam Scott of Australia teeing off on the 13th hole Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images

The third playoff event, the BMW Championship, had a Monday finish because of inclement weather, which sent sighs through the television broadcasting trailer and booth and sent everybody else scurrying to change travel arrangements. But Dufner found the rainbow after Sunday’s daylong rain.

“We weren’t playing,” he said, “so we got to watch some football.”

Brandt Snedeker, the reigning FedEx Cup champion, is a fan of his alma mater, Vanderbilt, and his home-state N.F.L. team, the Tennessee Titans. He said he had received texts from people who told him they were switching back and forth on the weekends between football games and the golf telecasts.

Speaking of the playoffs, Snedeker, who carded a 69, said, “The last four weeks going up against the N.F.L., I think it’s our best product.” He added: “I would like to think it is making a dent, because you have Tiger, Phil playing, and there are a bunch of different scenarios playing out this week that can really draw a viewer in.”

In a news conference Tuesday, the PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, pointed to the television viewership throughout the year as evidence that golf’s popularity is on an upswing.

“We had 165 million different Americans tune in at one point in time,” Finchem said. “Over 100 million tune in on 10 or 12 events or more.”

Keegan Bradley, an unabashed fan of New England teams, was asked Thursday which he had perused first this past month: the golf results and FedEx Cup rankings or Red Sox box scores and Patriots game summaries? Bradley, after carding a 72, did not hesitate. “Baseball and football,” he said, “and what the Celtics are doing for sure.”